My neighbor, the thief

Some of you may know that I live in a very charming little neighborhood. However, it does occasionally get coined as an “up and coming neighborhood” when you talk to the realtor type. That’s their way of saying, “Hey, this place is a little sketch, but it is totally a good investment property, and will be a really awesome place to live in about five years…”

When you buy into things like this, you also have to learn to accept your eclectic neighbors, please note I am using the term “neighbor” very loosely. Other people might refer to these so called “neighbors” as nomads, drifters, or bums. Usually they do not bother me and tend to keep to themselves, hanging out in Exall park in the morning, occasionally cheering me on during my morning run. They have always seemed relatively harmless… until recently.

I’ve had two experiences with mean bums. The first is actually quite humourous and is one of my favorite stories to tell. After my New Years Eve party this year, Wes was doing some clean up around my house and took out several bags of trash. What he didn’t know was that in one of these bags was a friend’s leather jacket that had an unfortunate run in with someone who drank a little too much the night before. The previous night, we bagged up the jacket to contain it so that my friend could promptly deliver it to the dry cleaner the next day. Unfortunately, she somehow forgot the jacket, leaving it amongst the pile of other trash bags. Ya, the ones that Wes had taken out that morning. After discovering this, Wes and I went out to the trash cans to see if we might be able to locate the bag. However, it seems as though a bum had beaten us to it, as we found an empty trash bag with a giant hole ripped in it.

My friend was slightly upset that she lost her leather jacket, but this bum did save her a relatively embarassing trip to the dry cleaner and also gave her the satisfaction of knowing that somewhere in Dallas, a guy was walking around with a heavily soiled leather jacket on.

My latest experience with a bum has not been as comical. Yes, there are humourous aspects to the story, but all in all, it isn’t so funny.

Last weekend, Wes and I brought up his mom’s car so that we could sell it for her. We decided parking it at my house was probably a little bit safer than his garage, where cars get broken into all the time.

Wrong.

After having the car here for all of two days, it was stolen. Wes and I filed a police report Thursday afternoon, but expected to never see the car again. Since the whole purpose of us having the car was to sell it, having it stolen actually seemed like it might work out in our favor.

Insurance proceeds > selling in open market.

Little did we know we had undercover detective of the year on the case. Thursday morning, prior to me discovering it was stolen because I am oblivious, said detective noticed the car being driven around by a handful of suspicious characters. He ran the plates just to see if anything came up, but no, the car had not been reported stolen.

About an hour after he did the check, the plate number popped up on his little police computer notifying him that it was in fact stolen.

The detective spent the next 24 hours trying to find the car. He realized success on Friday morning, where he discovered the car packed with bums in a relatively ghetto neighborhood in Dallas. If only he would of just pulled the idiots over the day before for some made up police reason. Yes, I believe is profiling, why do you ask?

A bum had stolen the car and had been joy riding with all of his bum buddies for the previous 24 hours. In that time period, they managed to steal a set of golf clubs, steal some tools, consume massive amounts of fast food (wrappers were left in the vehicle), get a flat tire, change the flat tire, and completely ruin the back driver’s side of the vehicle.

If only they would have burned the car to the ground as well. Turns out the damage is no where near enough to total the vehicle, so we are left with a relatively beaten up car that we need to sell. I wonder if carfax has a section where you have to report a bum taking refuge in the vehicle for a 24 hour time period….